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Six killed as police foil robbery at Acacia Mall

What you need to know:

  • Police say the six suspects have been on their watch list for some time because they have been robbing people

Police have gunned down six men in what is suspected to be a foiled robbery of cash from a businessperson, who had withdrawn money from a bank branch at Acacia Mall in Kisementi, Kampala City, on January 13.

The Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman, Mr Patrick Onyango, said the six men were shot dead by their intelligence unit personnel at the time when they were about to execute the alleged robbery.

“It was an intelligence-led operation carried out at Kamwokya after getting a tip-off that there are thugs who were planning to rob a client at Acacia Mall. The intelligence staged their personnel to wait for the thugs. After the client withdrew the money, the thugs were monitored and that is when the disruptive operation started,” Senior Superintendent of Police Onyango said yesterday.

The first suspects were shot dead near a petrol station at Acacia Mall, others were gunned down at a taxi stage a few metres away and on Mawanda Road.

“In this operation, six suspects were put out of action, and two pangas were recovered, then motorcycles were recovered. The recovered items have been exhibited. The suspects have been on our watch list and they have been robbing people,” Mr Onyango said.

The identities of the suspects are yet to be known.

Police said they recovered the machetes and motorcycles that the suspects were going to use during the robbery.

Mr Onyango said the police was informed that the suspects were going to rob a man who had just withdrawn cash from a bank at the mall.

“The suspects were tracked down. When they were about to carry out the robbery, the officers took action,” he said.

However, some of the witnesses told this publication that the suspects were shot dead despite surrendering to the officers.

Cases of gangs on motorcycles attacking people carrying cash to and from the bank are high in Kampala City.

This could be the first case in which the police have been able to intercept the suspects in such a crime before carrying out the robbery in five years.

Mid last year, a gang of 10 on motorcycles attacked a tour and travel operator, who was carrying money, beat him up and then grabbed his bag that contained Shs2.2 million before fleeing the scene on a busy Kampala road.

The incident happened at a junction called Eso Corner just a few metres from the Parliament at midday.

Police said the suspects trailed Mr Joshi Keshav from his workplace at Crown House in Kampala City while he was using a boda boda cycle until he was stuck in a traffic jam near Victoria University on Kampala Road.

Previous cases

On January 4, Police opened investigations after a Kampala businessman lost Shs30.7m . Police said businessman Francis Baraka filed a case of aggravated robbery on January 4 around 10:30am after losing the money, ATM cards and other vital identifications to a group of masked men riding on motorcycles. Mr Baraka said the thugs robbed him at 5th Street Junction, Mutabazi Lane in Kampala’s Central Division. He said he had withdrawn the money from a KCB Bank branch on 6th Street before he was confronted by the robbers armed with a panga.

In March 2021, four thugs attacked Kannankutty Krisnamaham and robbed him of Euro 100,000 (about Shs376.3m) near Kitgum House junction on Jinja Road in broad daylight as members of the public and police officers looked on. In 2020, thugs riding motorcycles trailed Ahmed Hassan, an assistant manager of Amal Forex Bureau, and Ismael Mohammad, the cashier of Amal Forex, from DTB Bank Equatorial Mall where they had withdrawn Shs 380 million. The suspects jumped off their motorcycles, surrounded the victims and robbed them.